No. 21 Vol. 6
My Life Publications • 973-809-4784
June 2025
Livingston Television Host Discusses How Athletes Endure Pain with Renowned Neurosurgeon
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By Evan Wechman any competitive athletes, when feeling pain, seek the help of various physicians. Sometimes all they need is a touch of traditional medicine and they feel much better, and ready to compete the next day. However, as witnessed on national television almost every weekend, some athletes feel the pain and rise above it without seeking any medical support. Livingston Entrepreneur and television host Barry Farber has always been fascinated with how top athletes endure pain to attain their desired goal. Farber is also an avid martial arts fan and has learned the art of Jiu Jitsu. It was while practicing this form of martial arts with his sensei where he realized sometimes pain can be beneficial in athletic competition. “But he(sensei) literally showed the rolling technique and taught me that when you’re thrown down, and you fall, if you do it, well, it becomes a strike, like you come back up and strike. But I started getting fascinated with falling,” Farber said. “So, what I found was, at first, I’d have certain shoulder pain, and it would be red because I rolled on concrete a certain way, and really, made damage. But then after a while, I didn’t feel anything. So that’s when I became fascinated with embracing the pain at first, because later it became something that was a benefit,” Farber added. Farber’s quest to find out more about enduring pain in competition led him to interview Dr. Mark McLaughlin on his television show “Diamond Minds.” Dr. Mark McLaughlin, a renowned neurosurgeon and founder of Princeton Brain and Spine Care is also an expert on maintaining superior performance under stress for
almost all professions, from neurosurgeons to top athletes. Dr. McLaughlin who is used to working under stressful conditions in his own practice, is also not a stranger to competitive athletics. A former NCAA Division I wrestler, he was inducted into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2016. He remains active in the wrestling world and is in his seventeenth-year coaching with the Princeton Wrestling Club and in his fifth year of the Trenton Youth Wrestling organization. According to McLaughlin, there are alternatives for both athletes and everyday people in how they can deal with pain. Not every situation requires a shot or a needle. “So, number one, we know that exercise is a more effective antidepressant and a more effective pain reliever than any medicine, any pharmacological substance that you have in any drugstore. Exercise clearly, when compared to antidepressants, is more protective than antidepressants to combat depression and exercise we know causes the release of endorphins, which are powerful pain relievers. So, it is one of the best prescriptions I give to my patients, particularly ones with chronic pain,” Dr. McLaughlin said. He also added that “Number two, you have to understand that pain is the resistance to sensation. The moment you allow the sensation, it’s no longer pain, it’s just a strong sensation. You can train your mind with that mantra, and you cannot be afraid to feel what you’re going to feel. If you’re not afraid of feeling what you can feel, it’s no longer pain.” As far as how this is practical on the football field or wrestling arena, McLaughlin believes many high-caliber athletes have adopted the mindset he has prescribed that allows them to not fear these sensations.
I think their mind is telling their telling their, body. Hey, look, you can say whatever you want, but I›m just not going to pay attention to you. You can fire those impulses, but you›re not going to stop me from doing what I need to do today,” he said. However, like any practical and well-educated Dr. Mark McLaughlin doctor, McLaughlin knows sometimes people need to seek out treatment when they are experiencing pain. Not everyone in our society can push through discomfort like professional athletes. “I don’t want people who are having chest pain, to say, oh, you’re just being a wimp, and it’s not serious, and don’t get attention to it.,” Dr. McLaughlin said. “There’s, a certain balance that we need to have if you’re experiencing pain in a non-extreme situation., it needs to get checked out. You could have cancer; you could have coronary artery disease. You could be experiencing the early signs and symptoms of something very serious. But if you’re testing yourself in a physical activity, understand, number one, that your body is so much more capable than what you think it is. You know the mind limits our physical abilities in so many ways. And then secondly, I would say that the more you cannot be afraid of feeling what you’re going to feel, to the extent that you’re going to feel it, the less fear you’ll have, and the more love you’ll have of what you’re doing.”